Chapter 12

Sophie fought to get back to Nate but soon realised she was not going to escape the two men who escorted her away. Sophie felt the first prick of tears as she realised too that she had just witnessed Nate get killed. She slumped into the arms of the men who were holding her on either side and just moved along with them. She was brought to a stop in front of a man she barely recognised. He was far from the man she had known all those years ago and it was not only age that had changed him.

"Look Rudgar, she is crying for the man, now that would be a first. Tell me my dear, did you love him, like you said you loved me?" He asked.

Sophie did not reply, he just stared at him. Her eyes were swollen and her mascara had started to run from the tears she had already shed.

"I think she actually cared for him Archie." Rudgar said.

"In the way only a Grifter can." Archibald agreed. "She had me convinced she loved me, then she sent me to my fate, just as she has now dispatched her latest target to his death."

"Her fiancé no less." Rudgar said.

"Yes…yes…well I am sure if I let her go she would find another one. But I am not going to let her go am I?" He asked his friend.

Still Sophie made no move, no comment. She did not care what they did to her now. Nate was dead, he was dead because she had brought him into this. If she had not asked him for help, if she had just gone with Michael and let Nate alone, he may have been drunk but he would have been alive. She may as well have pulled the trigger herself. It didn't matter what happened to her now, Nate was gone and it was her fault.

"Nothing to say my dear?" Archibald asked her. "Do you know what they did to me…do you? Do you even care?" He spat at her. "Well you will pay for what you did. You will pay for your treachery." He said and then a coughing fit caused him to fold back into the chair. Rudgar was immediately by his side and so was the young man who had stood behind him during the meeting.

"We have time Archie." Rudgar said as the fit passed. "Let us let her think about it for a while, anticipation can cause such sweet anxiety."

"Yes…yes…" Archie nodded leaning back in the chair and closing his eyes.

Rudgar nodded and motioned to the two men who had brought her in to take her back to her cell. Sophie went without fighting and Rudgar frowned slightly. Archibald was wrong, even if she was a Grifter, it was clear she truly cared for the man he had just killed. He turned back to Archibald and helped his son get him back into his room and into bed. It didn't really matter. It was only a matter of time and then both she and Archibald would be dead and this whole thing would be over.

Sophie was taken back to her room and shoved inside the door locked behind her. This time it was lit. She stood frozen to the spot as she stared down at the floor which had a small pool of blood on it where Nate had laid. Where he had died…She fell back against the door and slid to the floor a flood of tears streaming from her eyes as she sobbed inconsolably.

Nate came back to consciousness as two rough hands pulled his feet dragging him to the edge of the back of the truck he had been placed in. He was lifted out of the truck and carried a short distance.

"They won't find him here soon, if ever." The man said before lifting him off his shoulder and throwing him down. Nate braced himself for the contact with the ground but it did not come, instead he felt wet and cold flood over him.

"Let's go…" The man said to his friend after watching for a few moments as Nate drifted out into the lake.

"Maybe we should have weighted him down." His friend said. Nate was not sinking, he was simply floating away.

"Maybe but I ain't going in there to get him back to weigh him down." The first man said shaking his head. "That water is damn cold besides even if they find him, they can't connect him to us."

"Yeah..ok…let's get the hell out of here then." He said and they walked back to the truck and then sped off back towards where they had come from.

Nate lay drifting in the water. He was amazed he was still alive. He floated on his back water lapping over him gently, his arms stretched out beside him keeping him face up. He had no sense of time or space, his mind drifting. He heard Sophie's voice, her laugh. He hoped the other's had gotten to her, had saved her. He closed his eyes. He was tired and ready to give up, but he could not, he kept hearing Sophie's voice telling him to fight, to stay alive, telling him she needed him. He drifted until he was hung up on something, he did not know what, but whatever it was it was helping him stay right side up and stopped him from drifting further out into the dam. He could hear the water lapping against something and he could hear the rustle of reeds. He knew he had lost a lot of blood from the gun shot and he was sure it would not be long before he drifted off and never woke again. He was ready he thought. Before he drifted back into unconsciousness his last thought was of Sophie. Eliot and the others had to safe her, they had to.

Will Nate survive? Will the others be able to find him? What about Sophie, will they get to her before Archie is ready to exact his revenge? As ever I think you all for your great reviews.